What a group of good old fashioned rabble-rousers D.C.'s own Des Demonas have become! Early on, the band was in debt to singer Jacky Cougar Abok's Mark E. Smith appropriations, with a decided post-punk spark running through the angular and meaty hooks on their self-titled 2017 debut LP. Back now with Apocalyptic Boom! Boom!, the band's sound has only expanded, drawing in genre elements as disparate as hints of Seventies funk, snatches of fusion, a dollop of Nation of Ulysses, and a uniquely American spin on British second wave punk. Taken together, those pieces have been stitched into a real Frankenstein's monster of rock-and-roll.
From the Nuggets-inspired opener "Obsession" to the Bowie-quoting slow-burner "The Duke Ellington Bridge", the changes in the Des Demonas attack become apparent. While the lyrical concerns of Jacky mirror those of the earlier records, things seem more broadly pitched here. On the insinuating grind of "Fascist Discotheque", Jacky sings "I don't want to be so fucked up in the USA!" Any listener post-November 5 knows what he means, even if this was recorded prior to the election. Elsewhere, the pointed "Angola" succeeds thanks to guitar hooks from Mark Cisneros which seem to owe a small debt to those of the reggae greats of the Seventies, even as "Elvis and Nixon" is one of many tracks here which does very well what Bobby Gillespie and crew were trying to do on Evil Heat. It's not easy to update that kind of thing successfully, and while the Primal Scream record is mired in the dated instrumentation of what passed for the future in 2002, Apocalyptic Boom! Boom!, by dipping back into Sixties and Seventies tropes, serves up a uniformly more robust and resilient style of decidedly forward-looking protest rock.
Where this second Des Demonas works so well is where Jacky lets himself explicitly address ills, much like he did on the smart-and-sly "The South Will Never Rise Again" a few years ago. On "Apocalyptic Boom! Boom!", racial oppression is addressed, along with colonialism, while on the wonderful "Des Demonas Against Facism", the title does the heavy lifting right out of the gate, even if that title made me think of "Susan Vs. Youth Club" by Jacky's faves, The Fall. But unlike Mark E. Smith, Abok seems less concerned with obfuscating his meaning. Given the exigencies of living in 2024, that makes perfect musical sense. And it's what gives Apocalyptic Boom! Boom! such a full sound, letting the band punch hard on "Miles Davis Headwound Blues" and unravel to glorious effect in the world-weary and oddly-lovely "Psychic Bloc" near the end of the record.
Apocalyptic Boom! Boom! is perfectly realized. It's a rewarding album for anyone who's been following Des Demonas on their journey. The styles and vibes which created odd juxtapositions on earlier releases now seem naturally joined up. Perhaps slightly less in thrall to The Fall and garage rock than before, Des Demonas in 2024 have found a way to keep those elements which beefing up their overall sound. And with more explicit lyrical concerns, Jacky Cougar Abok sounds like he's going to lead this crew over the barricades. Apocalyptic Boom! Boom! is a revolution you can dance to.
Apocalyptic Boom! Boom! by Des Demonas will be out on November 29 via In The Red Records.
[Photo: ¡Ya Basta! DC]